Digital Services
Have news alerts sent to your mobile device or email, read the e-Edition, sign up for daily newsletters, activate your all access, enter contests, take quizzes, download our mobile apps and see the latest e-circulars.

Contact Us
See department contacts, frequently asked questions, request customer service support, submit a photo or place an ad.

Article Tools

The killing of more than 1,000 innocent Palestinian men, women, and children by Israel in its conflict with the Hamas militant group is heartbreaking. It is nothing less than a tragedy.

The vague goals of Israel’s offensive operations were to destroy the tunnels that militants were using to infiltrate Israel and to demilitarize Hamas.

Indiscriminately lobbing missiles towards general areas from which Hamas mortars were fired does not seem like the best way to destroy tunnels.

This approach resulted in the high number of innocent deaths and injuries. Missiles even hit two United Nations shelters that were full of families seeking safety.

First of all, more diplomatic negotiations should have been pursued in the name of peace and out of concern for the lives of civilians who were being used as human shields by Hamas.

Diplomacy could have taken advantage of the fact that many moderate Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were on Israel’s side in their disdain of the radical and violent Islam that Hamas promotes.

Secondly, if operations were necessary, they should have been more focused on destroying the actual tunnels and not on shelling neighborhoods full of civilians. Israel uses the excuse that they were responding to Hamas mortar attacks. They blame Hamas for the civilian deaths since it used them as human shields.

The Israeli army should have been more disciplined and refused to fire into highly populated neighborhoods. However, Israel went ahead with the shelling as a way to punish Hamas. It did so at the cost of so many innocent lives.

Sadly, the Western media seems to be downplaying this awful situation. On the other hand, the moderate King Abdullah of Jordan went so far as to challenge the international community not to overlook the situation that he says is replete with war crimes against innocent civilians.

It is hoped that a peaceful solution to the crisis can be worked out soon.

Matthew Balukonis,

McAdoo

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.